Oregon State University exercise science student Jacob Taskinen leads a body pump class. / Oregon State University College of Public Health and Human Sciences

by Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY

by Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY

Most students can now graduate from college without breaking a sweat â?? at least the physical kind.

Just 39% of four-year colleges said students had to meet physical education requirements in 2010, down from about two-thirds in the 1980s and '90s and a peak of 97% in the 1920s, say researchers who checked the websites of 354 randomly selected schools. The numbers were lowest at public colleges and universities.

Physical education advocates say they are not surprised but are unhappy about the trend. "Students are really missing an opportunity to learn skills for a healthy life," says lead researcher Brad Cardinal, professor of exercise and sport science at Oregon State University. His university has a physical education requirement, putting it in the company of institutions such as Columbia University, which still requires every student to pass a swimming test, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has an unusually robust eight-hour physical education requirement.

But the cuts at many colleges, combined with those in K-12 schools, come at time when more students arrive on campuses overweight, inactive and poorly educated about nutrition, Cardinal says. Many, he adds, could get lifelong benefits from classes focused on healthier habits.

The new study, published in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, does not address why colleges are dropping the requirements. But one big factor is the broader shift away from requiring students to take many classes outside their majors, says Steve Mitchell, president-elect of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. He is a physical education professor at Kent State University in Ohio, which has no physical education requirement.

There's also generally a shift away from life skills to career skills and a push for students to graduate as quickly as possible, to minimize costs, Mitchell says. "Students and parents are less willing to pay for things that are outside their immediate academic disciplines," he says.

Students and parents often pay, instead, for shiny new come-when-you-can fitness centers, says Dennis Docheff, a professor in the department of nutrition and kinesiology at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. It also does not require physical education.

Docheff says the two dozen treadmills at his university's 2-year-old center are often full, but "not everyone is using them efficiently" or building habits that will last.

He adds: "There also are a lot of people who never step inside the building unless it's for a cup of coffee."

When the University of Chicago dropped its 60-year-old swimming test and a three-credit physical education requirement recently, administrators said they wanted to let students pick their own ways to exercise. As part of the switch, the university lifted fees on exercise classes that cover everything from core training to yoga to Zumba. The move was applauded by many students, the Chicago Tribune reported.